Alice in Wonderland Archives

The Pros and Cons of Producing Disney’s Alice in Wonderland, Jr.

Life has a way of making its mark on you. Don’t you agree?

When I was entering college, I really had no idea what career I wanted to pursue. Loving the arts as I did was a challenge, because I came from a family of business owners and teachers and studying something like the arts was considered frivolous and a waste of time. (I think that’s what they thought. I honestly don’t know.)

How would my arts interest sit with them? I know that doesn’t sound like an important thing to consider when you are starting out in your life as an adult, but I did care that my family approved of my future career pursuits.

Ironically, as things would have it, I ended up getting my teaching certification in English and later in Speech and Theater. I loved to perform. However, when I graduated from college in 1977 New York City was not somewhere I wanted to move and pound the pavements for a possible job. I was more practical than that. I admire anyone who makes it on Broadway. That has to be a tough road to go.

I had high hopes of ending up in a large high school. At the time, jobs teaching theater at the high school level were scarce. I taught English for three years then stayed home with our daughters for eleven. Instead of teaching theater in a high school, I developed and administrated several youth theater companies for community theaters. Once our daughters were in elementary school and I no longer needed to stay home with them, I went back to teaching.

For many years, I taught at the same time as I ran the youth programs (my last teaching position included teaching students in second through twelfth) with all of these other responsibilities. It was a crazy busy time, and grueling but it was necessary and I enjoyed it.

Thirty-eight plus years later, I see my talents and knowledge were best used with students of every grade level. Because I taught many classes over the years for several different school systems, I discovered where the holes were in the curriculum and took note of them.

The Pros and Cons of Producing Disney’s Alice in Wonderland, Jr.

Part of my mission is to provide guidance and advice selecting a musical for a school or youth theater program. I’ve directed over 250 plays and musicals through the years.

I’ve recommended Willy Wonka, Jr. in another blog post. You can read about it HERE.

Another junior musical I recommend is Disney’s Alice in Wonderland.

A quick synopsis—

In the most perfect day of summer, children play in a park, Alice dreams of a world of her own while her sister Mathilda lectures her on the books she is reading until Alice falls asleep. She wakes and finds a White Rabbit talking about how late he is. Alice follows the White Rabbit down a rabbit hole where strange creatures offer her advice. Finally, at the end of her fall, Alice encounters a talking doorknob which tells her that a place called “Wonderland” is on the other side. If you are familiar with the Disney movie version, you’ll love this script! It follows the movie version completely.

Characters–

One of the most important reasons I recommend this musical to teachers and youth theater directors is the number of roles available. Whoever adapted this script, did a very clever thing–wrote it so there are three Alices (one of average size, one taller and another even larger) That’s great from the stand point of giving more students opportunities to perform. Some roles can be gender fluid such as the White Rabbit and the Catepillar.

I’ve even switched the genders of the Queen and King of Hearts and cast a male as the Queen and a female as the King. Audiences LOVED it!

Here is Marshall portraying the Queen of Hearts!

Costumes, Sets and Props–One of the most worrisome parts of directing in amateur theater is the technical aspects. I’ve had the incredible luck to find a school where I could rent the lead characters’ costumes. However, you can produce this show with a limited budget, too. If you can only afford tee shirts, then use different colored shirts for each character. For example, Alice could be in bright blue, King and Queen in red, her court in white, etc.

A set design can be as simple as perioktois painted with three different scenes to denote locations. Or use a unit set and merely change a few set pieces for each scene.

Here’s a secret–an audience will believe anything you believe first. Direct the show in your school cafetorium or library or outside on the playground. Now there’s a thought! Be creative and step out of the norm. I have and it’s worth it!

The Pros and Cons of Producing Disney’s Alice in Wonderland, Jr.

Audience appeal–Lewis Carroll’s classic is still popular with children. Coupled with the availability of the Disney movie, it isn’t difficult to fill your theater with an enthusiastic audience. Whole families can attend without any worry about subject matter or language. The lines are quotable and well loved. Some of the best lines are delivered by minor characters and let me tell you, a young person feels so special when the audience laughs at his few lines.

Music–Oh my gosh, it’s so clever! It’s written in key signatures young voices can reach and sing strongly. No trying to reach notes which are completely out of their range. Students pick it up quickly, plus Music Theater International provides rehearsal CDs for your students to use. Personally, I think the rehearsal cd is worth its weight in gold. Students become very confident singing because they learn the music right along with the CD. If you’ve never used the MTI rehearsal CDs, you will not believe how much it helps the students.

If you are considering double casting, Alice in Wonderland works well double casted. Check out Double Casting a Show?

Having directed Alice in Wonderland, Jr. four times, I know it very well. It never grows old.

One complaint

Length–The show is a little long. The problem is the number of reprises. There are simply too many of them, although I understand the reasons for including them–it gives more students opportunities to perform. If you have students which can sustain their energy for ninety minutes, then great! It’s my experience that the length drains their energy. I mean, they are only kids, you know?

DramaMommaSpeaks Broadway Musical Units and Lessons

You may be unaware of it, but now that I’m retired I create theater ed. units and lessons for the classroom. Some of my most popular are my Broadway musical units.

Here are a few:

Cover of a unit about The Music Man musical

Each unit is different, although I include several of the same details in every unit:

letter to the teacher explaining the unit
teacher’s script to begin the lesson
a warm up
plot
synopsis
list of songs
creative staff biographies
Tony awards the production has won
Trivia
Student’s note and Teacher’s Key (yay!)
Lastly, an enrichment activity page which is customized for each musical.

Irregardless of the musical you select for your students, just know that if you consider the students first you will succeed. It’s really that simple.

What is your favorite musical to direct with your students? I’d love to hear about it. Contact me at DhcBaldwin@gmail.com or DeborahBaldwin.net

Let’s talk about the ten reasons why everyone produces Anne of Green Gables. Facebook groups are beginning to chat about suggestions of good plays and musicals to produce. I am even a member of a chat group which talks real details such as how to make Pinochio’s nose grow in Shrek or how to transform the Beast in Beauty and the Beast. Yes, that’s what we theater teachers discuss a lot.

I can’t help but notice the teachers who work in conservatory school districts in small town America. Let’s face it–you can’t produce Chicago in those towns or even The Laramie Project. Theater is hard enough to sell to a community without it being any more contraversial than an innocuous theme such as bullies. I understand the need for something conservative.

Classics such as Tom Sawyer, Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, the Disney franchise will go over well in a conservative community. I’ve directed all of the aforementioned. My favorite to direct? Anne of Green Gables, the play adaptation by Sylvia Ashby.

Ten Reasons Why Everyone Produces Anne of Green Gables

Anne of Green Gables is a perfect play for your company. Not only have I directed it, I’ve produced it as well. In fact, many schools and companies produce the play. As you can tell, I know its ins and outs.

There are certain shows that are guaranteed winners for a company. Anne of Green Gables ranks up there with The Diary of Anne Frank, The Miracle Worker, Alice in Wonderland, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever just to name a few.

Ten Reasons Why Everyone Produces Anne of Green Gables

There are many reasons to include it in your season, but suffice to say you will make happy a lot of your potential audience members and your regulars. In particular, I recommend Sylvia Ashby‘s adaptation. It is published by Concord Theatricals.com Ashby understands the challenges most schools and community theaters face as far as budget, casting and theatrical space.

The strengths:

1. The cast is comprised of both males and females, BUT two of main characters are females. Hallelujah

2. There are roles for adults and children of many ages. Nine females and seven males. If you need to pad the cast a little, it’s easy to do with more children in the school scenes.

3. The costumes can be as easy or complicated as your costume budget allows. Simple long skirts, long sleeved high neck blouses and lace for the women work well. Males can wear long pants, boots, a button down shirt with no collar and a cap or hat. You can add bloomers for the girls (which is easy to do and just darling) and knickers for the boys (which again is just so cute), but that’s up to you and your budget. If you want some more advice about the critical steps in costume design, check out: Critical Steps in Producing a Play or Musical: Costumes

4. There are a couple of costume issues–Anne’s hair turns green at one point, but that’s not too difficult to accomplish. We’ve used wigs. She also falls into the stream, so you can get her wet or just imply it by spraying her arms with water and maybe her hair.

5. There are several scenes with many characters on stage at once which means more time for everyone to have fun. I’m all about keeping everyone busy–so the more I can get my cast on stage, the better!

6. It’s a good length, about 120 minutes. This is not too difficult for middle school students to accomplish as well as high school.

7. The set can be as elaborate are you require (I’ve seen it produced on a revolving stage.) or simple. I have directed it with the house up center and the other various locales down stage of it. If you need extra advice about set design, check out: Critical Steps in Producing a Play or Musical: Set Design

8. There is a need for a boat. One time a father went crazy on me and built an entire boat (yes, you read that right), but really, that’s not needed. You could do the scene with a bench on a small platform on casters.

9. In a school setting I directed it with two Marillas and three Annes (one for each age we see as she grows up). This plan was terrific for a number of obvious reasons. It gave more females the opportunity to perform leads and lessened the number of lines they had to memorize.

10. The themes of family and friendship which radiate throughout the plot. It is suitable for all audiences. If for no other reason, you should produce this play because an entire family will attend it. It’s a huge crowd pleaser!

There are no cons against producing the play, in my opinion.

Direct a Classic!

As we know, we are bombarded with everything which distracts us more than enriches us– the internet is the biggest culprir and all it holds. I think the more we can get our students and the community in general to see classic books adapted into plays and musicals the better. If you produce an adaptation of a classic novel such as Sense and Sensibility, you will be in like flint with your community.

If you think you can be a little less conservative, I always first suggest To Kill a Mockingbird or The Giver. If you are a community theater, find out which books the students study and produce play adaptation of those books. For instance in according to Edu.com, most high school students read these books.

In my opinion, we are losing the love of the written word. We are becoming habitual internet users. I’m just as much at fault with this one as anyone else, except I’ve found an answer to my problem.

I’m a member of the National Theater at Home streaming service. It has done wonders for my imagination. Whenever I view one of their productions, it feels like a vitamin has been injected into my brain. The classics are the best vitamins, I’ve found.

The next time you are looking for a play that will become a guaranteed winner for your audience, select Anne of Green Gables. You’ll be glad you did!

What is a play or musical which sells out every time you produce it? I’d love to hear about it. Email me at DhcBaldwin@gmail.com and let’s chat!

The Pros and Cons of Producing Disney’s Alice in Wonderland, Jr.

The Pros and Cons of Producing Disney’s Alice in Wonderland, Jr.

The Pros and Cons of Producing Disney’s Alice in Wonderland, Jr.